YOUNG 88
A HOTLY CONTESTED SERIES
CLUB YACHTING
This year ’ s NSW Championships saw 10 Y88s gather on the picturesque waters of Pittwater on April 16 / 17 . The annual regatta hosted by the ever professional RPAYC saw a hotly contested series with some of the closest competition seen in recent years with numerous boats sporting new headsails and spinnakers . Held over six windward leeward races with no drops allowed meant that any mistakes were punished . Saturday had light NE breezes averaging 5-10 knots over the course of the day which saw Agent 88 skippered by Stephen Ellis dominate with superior boat speed in the light conditions leveraging their local knowledge of Pittwater . Agent 88 was chased down hard by defending champion Pistol Dawn from BSC skippered by Mal Thompson with Kia Kaha from RANSA and Pelangi all sharing podium places on Day 1 .
With a weak southerly coming through overnight and then building on the morning of day two , Races 4 and 5 saw a very different track . Kia Kaha skippered by Justin Atkinson jumped out of the blocks and led the whole way to take their first bullet of the series . Pistol Dawn also revelled in the fresher breeze which varied between 10- 20 knots and manage to reverse the tables on Agent 88 in the series score by the end of Race 5 . It all came down to Race 6 and with the breeze fading to 10 knots , Agent 88 did everything they could to close out the series with a convincing win and daylight to the second place Pistol Dawn . However , all that was needed of Pistol Dawn to close out the series was to hang on to second which she did to clinch the series by the closest of margins - one point . The final results on scratch were :
1 Pistol Dawn - Mal Thompson 10.0 2 Agent 88 - Stephen Ellis 11.0 3 Kia Kaha - Justin Atkinson 20.0
The PHS series results showed that it was open for anyone to win with an impressive win in Race 4 by Venue skippered by Brian Ellis and Knott in Race 5 skippered by Bruce Davison . It was Agent 88 who was to take out the series for PHS , Kia Kaha 2nd and a fast improving Quicksticks skippered by Bill Warren taking out 3rd overall . The final results for PHS were :
1 Agent 88 - Stephen Ellis 22.0 2 Kia Kaha - Justin Atkinson 26.0 3 Quicksticks - Bill Warren 27.0
28 YACHTSMAN